Dump-car.



H. R. KEITHLEY M. w. TEST. DUMP CAR.

APPLICATION HLED JAN. 12, 1918.

1 290,572. Patented Jan. 7, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

' a "a (I! 5 H. R. KEITHLEY & E. w. TEST.

DUMP CAR.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 12. 1918.

1,290,572. Patented Jan. 7,1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERBERT R. KEITHLEY AND ELLIs w. TEsT, 0E MIGHIGAN oITY, INDIANA,ASSIGNORS To ALBERT R. COUDEN, TRUSTEE, or MICHIGAN CITY, INDIANA.

DUMP-GAR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 7, '1919.

2 Application filed January 1 2, 1918. Serial No. 211,550; V V v To allwhom it may concern: 7

Be it known that we, HERBERT R. KEITH- LEY and ELLIs W. TEsT, citizensof the United States, and residents of Michigan City, county of Laporte,and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Dump-Cars, of which the following is a specification, and which areillustrated in the accompanying drawings,

, which are not only simple in construction,

but at the same time provide a rigid support for the door.

One embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings in which- Figure 1 is a detail transverse sectional view of acar, one of the doors being shown in closed position in solid lines andin open position in dotted lines;

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing the construction of the doorsadjacent the trucks;

Fig. 3 is an end view of the operating parts for opening and closing thedoors;

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal vertical section through one of the doors onthe plane 44 of Fig. 1; and in Fig. 5 is a section on the line 55 ofFig. 4.

The car frame comprises acenter sill 10, side wall 11, and cross bearer12 extending therebetween. On this frame is carried the floor 13 of thecar. In this floor 13 is formed an opening 14 adapted to be closed by adoor 15, hinged at 16 to a bracket 17 mounted on the center sill.

For opening and closing this door a shaft 18 is provided, on which shaftis mounted an arm 19. To the outer end of this arm is connected, at 20 alink 20, pivotally attached by a pin 21 to the under side of the door.The arm 19 and the link 20 act as a toggle joint and therefore hold thedoor firmly closed against the weight of material inthe car, and alsoagainst shocks and vibrations due to movement'of the car, shuntingoperations, and so forth.

For the sake of strength and rigidity the arm19 and the link 20 shouldbe short, and the line joining the shaft 18'and the pin 21 should be asnearly vertical as convenient or possible. The shaft 18 is carried bythe cross bearers, preferably being j ournaled directly therein, asshown. These various, factors are, in certain respects, conflicting,although by the present construction they are ad vantageously combinedwithout restricting the extent of opening of the doors or compli eatingeither the construction or method of operating the doors. 7

As the shaft 18 is arranged under the doors and extends substantiallythe length of the car, the extent of opening of the doors is dependenton-the position of this shaft. The lower the shaft is arranged below thedoor or V thefar'ther it is moved to the right (Fig. 1) the wider thedoor can open. As, however, it is desirable to journal the shaft in thecross-bearers the extent to which the shaft can be lowered is limited bythe depth of the cross-bearers. The horizontal position of the shaft isdetermined by the position of the door when in its desired openposition, since the shaft should be as far from the hinge as possible inorder to give the maximum support to the free or movable end of thedoor.

The arm 19 and link 20 are arranged so that outward and downwardmovement opens the door and vice versa. To allow this movement to occur,and at the same time provide as nearly vertical a support for the dooras possible, the distance between the hinge 16 and pin 21 should begreater than the distance between the hinge 16 and shaft 18 by an amountnot substantially in excess of the width of the arm 19. The-reason forwhich shows the. parts in both open and closed position of the door.

In order to limit the extent to which arm 19 and link 20 can moveinwardly, a stop 19 is provided for engaging the arm 19, as shown inFi 1. Movement of the arm 19 and link 20 In the opposite direction whenthe 109. is closed is normally prevented by this relationship will beclear from Fig. 1,

means of a pawl or dog 30, which engages the teeth of a ratchet wheel 22mounted on the end of the shaft 18. As the point 20 is above the linejoining the pin 21 and the shaft 18, any torsional strains due to theload on the door are almost wholly taken by the stop or pin 19 insteadof by the shaft 18.

For rotating the shaft 18 a second pawl 23 is provided. This pawl ispivotally attached, at 24, to a lever 25 which is in turn pivoted at 26to the end sill 27 0f the car. This lever 25 is provided with a socket28, into which a hand bar 29 may be inserted when it is desired tooperate the pawl. As the lever 25 is pivoted at a point adjacent thepoint of connection of the pawl with the lever, greater leverage isobtained than would be the case if the lever were arranged to turn aboutthe shaft 18 as an axis.

The leverage is also increased by reason of the short length of the arm19 and link 20. With the construction illustrated the shaft, in openingor closing the door, rotates through an angle over three times the amplitude of the angle through which the door turns.

When the doors are closed the ratchet wheel 22 is positively preventedfrom rotating in. one direction by the stop 19 and in the otherdirection by means of the pawl or dog 30, which is held in engagementwith the ratchet wheel by means of a cam 31. This cam 31 is mounted on ashaft 32, which may be rotated by manual means (not shown) for bringingits cam surface in and out of engagement with the dog 30. Hence, when itis desired to open the doors the cam 31 must first be moved out ofengagement with the dog 30 so that the latter may be disengaged from theratchet wheel 22. In this position the door will be held closed merelyby reason of the fact that the point 20 is above the line joining thepin 21 with the axis of the shaft 18. then moved into the position shownby dotted lines in Fig. 8, and the handbar operated so as to move theratchet wheel 22 in a counter-clockwise direction. A movement of asingle tooth will be sufficient to bring the point of connection of thearni 19 with the link 20 onto the opposite side of the line joining thepin 21 to the shaft 18 when the weight of the door will complete theopening movement. While the door is openin under its own weight, theteeth ofthe eel 22 will pass under the pawl 23 so that the sudden shockproduced by the opening doors will not be transmitted to the hand bar29'.

In order to raise the door the dogior pawl 30 is brought into engagementwith the ratchet wheel 22 and the pawl 23 is placed in the positionshown in full lines in Fig. 3. Operations of the hand bar 29 willproduce a step by Step rotation of the ratchet The pawl 23' is of thedoors therebetween, and as it is not desirable to limit the extentofmovement of all the doors to the same extent as that of the doors overthe trucks provision ismade for allowing the doors between the trucks toopen to a greater extent. For this purpose slots 33 are provided in thesides of the doors 15 which are arranged over the trucks to allow thepin 21 to move downwardly after the door itself has come to rest byreason of its engagement with the truck, thus allowing the shaft torotate so as to open the other doors to the desired extent.

By the arrangement shown and described the door is supported whollythrough the agency of the toggle members, and the latter being short maybe made ver rigid without undue weight. The controlhn mechanism is verysimple and compact an easy of operation.

Weclaim as our invention 1. In a car, in combination, a hinged door, anoperating shaft therefor,a ratchet wheel on said shaft, a pawl adaptedto engage said wheel, and an operating lever therefor adapted to turnabout a point intermediate the axis of said shaft and the point of con"nection of said pawl and said lever.

2. In a car, in combination, a frame, a door hinged to the frame, arotatable operating shaft journaled in stationary bearings in the framebelow said door, an operative connection between said shaft and saiddoor, said shaft being arranged to be engaged by and thereby to act as asupport for the door in its open position.

3. In a car, in combination, a frame, a door hinged to the frame, arotatable operating shaft journaled in stationary bearings in the framebelow said door, a toggle connection betweensaid shaft and said door, astop on said frame at a distance from said shaft adapted to limit themovement of said toggle after the latter has passed the position inwhich the three axes of rotation are in a straight line, the entireweight of the door in closed position being transferred through thetoggle to the shaft and the stop.

4. In a. car, in combination, a hinged door, an operating shaft belowthe door, a crank arm on said shaft, and a link connecting said arm withthe door, the distance between the hinge of the door andthe point ofconnection of the link to the door being greater than the distancebetween the hinge and said shaft by an amount not substantially inexcess of the width of said arm.

5. In a car, in combination, a hinged door, an operating. shaftvertically below said door, a crank arm on the shaft, and a linkpivotally connecting the arm with the door adapted to transfer theweight of the door to the shaft, the combined lengths of the arm andlink being less than half the width of the door from the hinges to theopposite edge of the door.

6. In a car, in combination, a hinged door, an operating shaft below thedoor in a vertical plane intermediate the hinges, and the swingingmargin of the door, a crank arm on the shaft, and a link for connectingthe arm with the door, the combined lengths of the arm and link beingless than half the width of the door from the hinges to the oppositeswinging margin of the door, outward move ment of the arm and linkopening the door and inward movement of the link and arm bringing thepoint of connection of the arm and link to the opposite side of the linej oining the shaft .with the point of connection of the link with thedoor for holding the latter in closed position.

7. In a car, in combination, a hinged door, an operating shaftvertically below said door, a crank arm on the shaft, and a linkpivotally connecting the arm with the door for opening and closingthelatter, the angle through which the door turns in moving from closedto open position being less than one-third the angle through which thesaid arm turns in producing such movement of the door;

HERBERT R. KEITHLEY. ELLIS W. TEST.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

